Future City takes the question, 'How can we make the world a better place?'', and encourages the men and women of the future—today's 6th, 7th, and 8th graders—to answer it. Together, they incorporate the principals of engineering, including research, design, and the power of the imagination, to build up a model of their own city as a more sustainable future city.

These young participants have a number of set deliverables, and in working together, will often come to incorporate the principals of project management. This is where PMI Buffalo comes in. As these students lay the groundwork for their own future involvement in an ever more complex and technically-oriented global society, we plant the seed of project managament as a field and critical tool, knowing how important it may be to their success. PMI Buffalo supplies project management mentors to schools requesting assistance in developing their project, and in past years, our chapter has presented a special award to the team with the best application of project management practices to the creation of their project.

Each year the Future City Competition tackles a new area of focus: use of public space, green energy, public transportation, urban agriculture.... and the theme for 2018-2019 theme is Powering Our Future, which involves the design of a resilient power grid for their future city—one that could stand up against and aid their future city to bounce back from the effects of a natural disaster. We are excited to introduce these young future drivers to the exciting world of project management!

If you are interested in learning more about PMI's involvement in the Future City Competition, or are interested in volunteering, email our Director of Community Outreach Tamera Knight at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.